Three Dog Night

With a frigid air mass hovering o’er us, my sister and I came to talk about our dogs' sleeping habits. Molly is more of a curl-up-in-a-ball type while Ben is usually a side-sleeper. If he’s not, it usually means something. If Ben happens to be curled up in a ball, in the middle of the living room for example, then that means “Hey you turn that thermostat up, will ya?”

I don’t mind if they are with me on the bed, esp in winter, as they do make wonderful heaters. They must be invited, and if I ask them to move they must oblige or else they will get booted to the confines of the super-plush-overstuffed-microsuede-sherpa-fleece-donut bed or the heat-retaining-memory foam-sherpa-fleece-covered-orthopedic bed.

Molly is happy to stay with me in bed as I read, but the moment I take my reading glasses off and reach over to turn off the light, she hops off and settles into her super-plush-overstuffed-microsuede-sherpa-fleece-donut bed where she will stay til morning. The last thing I see before the light goes out is Molly looking up at me waiting for me to turn the dang light off.

If Ben joins me, he’ll usually be there all night. I'll be hanging off the edge of the bed as Ben catches ZZZs smack dab in the middle. Of. My. Bed. A simple command, “move,” will elicit a grumble and he’ll move about an inch. When I tell him again to move, he’ll turn his head to look at me, still grumbling, and then move off to the side. This activity usually stirs Molly awake and she will proceed to give Ben the evil eye or the disciplinary muzzle poke. Then we all go back to bed and try to get warm and cozy again.

It was brrrrrrrrr last night! So cold a night it could be coined a three dog night*, but it was a only a two dog night for me, as I only have two dogs! But I suppose if I ball up all that shedded hair that has accumulated en masse around the house this past week, I could come up with something roughly the size of another dog. (Which reminds me – must bring out the Furminator.)

* Whas she sayin? The expression comes from the Australian Aborigines who spent a lot of their time outdoors looking after animals. During cold winter nights when the temperature dipped, a fellow often cuddled up with his dogs to keep warm. For slightly cold nights, you needed the body heat of only one dog to keep warm thus `one dog night'. When very cold, you added a second dog for ‘two dog night.’ For extremely cold nights, you needed three dogs to keep warm, a `three dog night.’